For two URI students, religion has had a big effect on the campus experience

By Courtney Anderson

Every Sunday about 8 a.m., P.J. Cole's alarm clock goes off. While many University of Rhode Island students are sleeping off the after-effects of Saturday night partying or getting ready for a full day of studying, Cole is up, dressed and driving down Route1 from Narragansett to the Carolina Free Baptist Church in Charlestown, which he has been attending for as long as he can remember.

He gets there in time to attend a 9 a.m. Bible-study class and then meets the rest of his family in church for the service an hour later. After church, his entire family - his mom, dad, sister and brothers' families -- go back to his parents' house for lunch and to spend some quality time together.

"Going to church helps to rejuvenate me and recharge my faith after being at school and work all week long and I get to spend the day with my family, which is also good for me," Cole says.

Cole is not the only college student who makes it a point to integrate religion into his busy schedule, which includes balancing business and accounting classes to complete his accounting major and working four to five days a week at a wholesale fish company in Pawcatuck, Conn.

Despite commons beliefs that religious involvement decreases among young people when they get to college, there are students who carry their faith with them through these four crucial years of their lives.

And a recent study done by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute discovered that students who do carry their religious beliefs with them through college will reap some positive benefits.

According to the study, there is a substantial decline in students' mental well-being upon entering college. Many feel depressed or overwhelmed at some point. Of such students, those who are not regularly involved in religion are twice as likely to experience some state of poor mental health during their college years.

The study also found that religion plays a role in the behavior of students in college. Of students who enter college abstaining from alcohol, less than half continue to do so if they have no involvement in religion-based activity, while 74 percent of students who do practice some form of religion continue to abstain from alcohol.

According to the study, a large percentage of students have some form of religion or spirituality in their lives. Seventy-seven percent of students said that they prayed, while 76 percent said that they are searching for some "meaning or purpose in their lives."

But many educational institutions seem to be falling short of students needs, as 56 percent of students said their professors never provide opportunities to discuss the meaning or purpose of life.

Cole, whose parents raised him in the Baptist faith, says his religion has shaped his college experience inside and outside of the classroom.

"I'm very grateful for the way I was raised and for both my parents," Cole says.

In fact, his beliefs influenced him so much that he says he did not touch alcohol until he turned 21 last year.

"My religion and morals have caused me to stay away from things like getting drunk or 'hooking up' with lots of different girls," Cole says.

Cole also credits religion for his ability to not buckle under the stress of a heavy workload that often accompanies a full college schedule.

"I mean, why do I need to be all stressed out about school and the work load I have? How much does it really matter in the long run? The answer for me is that it doesn't. . . . I have the peace of knowing that I'll be fine in the end.

Cole says that he often prays if he starts to feel overwhelmed by school and that helps him to get through those stressful times.

Unlike Cole, Bethany Manly didn't discover religion until her senior year at URI, but now as a graduate student in education at the university, she says that she often brings her Catholic faith into the classroom.

"Everyone in my class has a passion; I am known as the religious one," Manly says.

Manly says her decision to convert to Catholicism came from both her upbringing and the religious studies classes she took in college.

"I was already living the Christian lifestyle, so it seemed like the perfect time to get involved. I felt like I wanted to choose an identity for myself.

So Manly contacted the URI Catholic Center and attended a few Newman Club meetings. A short time later she became an official member of the Catholic Church through the Right of Christian Initiation of Adults, a program that initiates future member of church by allowing them to make their baptism and confirmation in the same ceremony.

For the most part, Manly says, her decision was met with full acceptance and support by her family, which never pushed religion on her.

"I definitely had more positive than negative experiences. I became Catholic right in the middle of the priest scandal. A lot of my non-Catholic friends and family members were asking why I was joining this religion that was getting all of this negative attention," Manly says.

But in her own mind, Manly says, she knew that the priests who were getting into trouble were a minority group of people in the religion and she was able to push others' doubts aside.

Now, as a graduate student, Manly works with both the Newman Club and the RCIA to help others join the church, though she says that her own journey to become a member of the Catholic religion is still a work in progress.

"I have to commit to it just like school. I have to read more than most because I didn't grow up with religion. It's just like anything else -- you get out of it what you put into it," Manly says.

Although Manly was not religiously involved during her undergraduate years, as a future educator she has concerns about the place that religion is given in the public college classroom.

"The way URI handles religion is good, but there is room for more. Religion should not be forced on anyone, but it should be available because there are students who need a spiritual component in their life. That's why so many students lose their religious identity -- because it is no longer convenient when they get to college."

---

Courtney Anderson of Bristol, R.I., is a senior at the University of Rhode Island, where she is majoring in journalism and minoring in Spanish. She has written for East Bay Newspapers in Bristol and the Newport Daily News.